So What Do We Know Now That We Didn’t Before Comic Con?

Trying to get one’s head around all the news that dropped at Comic Con isn’t easy when more of it keeps coming out!  Especially when I’m still anxious to hear that we won’t have to wait until 2019 for that third season of Daredevil.  Sadly, it is now confirmed it’s not coming next year, but it sounds like Matt and Jessica will both have seasons in 2018, while The Punisher may be the one that waits longer.  Which might be smart; it’ll give them time to figure out how to center a series around a character like Frank Castle, since that’s not the easiest thing to do.

Meanwhile:

Defenders! Lots of Defenders!

If one was looking for a distraction from our possible impending doom last night, Marvel & Netflix certainly provided it.  I may have yelled in relief when I heard Daredevil is indeed getting its third season, right before all the trailers suddenly started dropping.

Reading more about the panel this morning, it seems, unfortunately, that the clip we’ve gotten of Luke Cage is actually the least informative of the ones shown as Comic Con last night.  Luke wrecking havoc with a car door is all well and good, but I’d have rather seen Misty Knight.  Although we do at least now have it confirmed that we’re getting Luke’s backstory, and it’s sounding pretty similar to the one from the comics.  Likely we’ll get a more informative trailer sometime next month.

The Defenders teaser, on the other hand, told us a surprising amount for a clip where the only actual footage was a single voiceover line.  But between that voice being Stick’s, and the outline of the Hand, it’s pretty obvious who the villains for the teamup are going to be.  I suspect we may be getting Elektra back too, though whether she will be still around or truly gone for good at season’s end is another matter.

I suppose I should be getting excited over Iron Fist, but…

And meanwhile we have both of those now confirmed for 2017, which means we’re left with three series seasons floating around with no release date yet, and one of will have to wait until 2019, unless they decide to start releasing more per year.  They may have to, if their dance card gets much more crowded.  Given how excited people are getting over Luke Cage, I’d be surprised if we don’t also eventually get a second season of that, and the other upcomings series also have good chances of it.  I hope they do it.  I do not want to wait two and a half more years for the third act of Daredevil…

The Marvel Movieverse Tears Itself Apart

It seems 2016 is the year everyone in the MCU breaks up and wrecks their lives.  We expected such things from Civil War, of course, what with it being the Civil War.  But much more heartbreaking was actually the second season of Daredevil, especially since while we know the Avengers will be reunited in two years’ time, and the final sequence of Civil War even laid the ground for it, two months after it dropped we’re still waiting anxiously to see if that third season even happens(and if it does, and they do Born Again, it’ll get worse before it gets better).  And meanwhile in real life, we’re starting to see even more sharply the divide between the movies and the TV universes, with a huge global phenomenon from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. getting what seems like a begrudged line of vague lipservice in Civil War.  Which is not good; the whole appeal of this franchise is that they’ve got this shared universe with shared history, and the movies would be well to suck it up and accept that they’re not the only thing writing said history.

Conclusions this week in the MCU has given us

Discussed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Most Wanted already, and what’s come out sicne about the former feels overshadowed by that, but looking at the other news since that synopsis turned the future prospects upside down:

Someone needs to give James D’Arcy an Emmy.  But it seems unlikely, when none of the cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter can even manage a Saturn nomination.  (Seriously, Iain or Liz would’ve definitely been worthy).

If you are going to ignore an internet campaign and cast some blonde dude as a character who really was a very appropriate character for racebending, if only to offset the Orientalism in his story(and when they’ve been doing Dr. Strange already too), maybe don’t announce it on the day you drop a Daredevil trailer.  You’re leaving your audiences too depressed to enjoy the trailer properly.  Should’ve waited a day.  (Or better yet, listened…)

Elektra comes off a little better when she get some more screentime, but I’m still a little uneasy.

Besides, everyone knows no relationship is more important than the Matt/Foggy bromance.  The hardest-hitting parts of this new trailer were when they were arguing.  Which raised the interesting question of is it going to be as bad as the trailer implies, or are they just playing that up because they know that hits the feels?  The series being what it is, it could go either way…

Speaking of bromances on the rocks, maybe no moment is more impactful than when Peggy yells at Jarvis, though, as usual, she’s pretty much right.  Poor Peggy will never meet a man that doesn’t get it dead wrong at some point and have to be yelled at.

Neither of those two men she’s got a choice of are really worthy of her.  Maybe the only man who ever was is the one stuck under the ice.

Indeed, maybe it says something that for a song about choosing between two men, there was definitely a homoerotic vibe going on in that number with Angie singing to Peggy.  Dottie establishing herself as always in Peggy’s head doesn’t exactly help with that either.

What’s going on with Karen???

So, latest teaser:

Karen in the office late at night with Punisher paraphernalia. Also looking way too glamorous, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Makes one think she might be doing something about him on her own. It seems to be what she does. Is that how she’s going to find out who Daredevil is?
(If she ends up rescuing Matt at any point I will die of joy. Even if the writers will then probably insist on them kissing right afterwards.)

Daredevil & Star Wars!

We’ve been anticipating the new Daredevil trailer and our first extended look at the new season since yesterday, but then Star Wars went and dropped this:

Which of course tells us absolutely nothing, but still, it’s fun to celebrate this moment with the people actually making the movie.

And then there’s this:

Strange, how even those of us who have no prior exposure to the Punisher have now spent months hearing enough of his story that the opening of this trailer, the reminder of his murdered children, can hit us this hard. And oh, Foggy, just wanting Matt to not destroy himself. And Karen, too; I’m still not shipping her and Matt, but her willingness to argue with Matt over the rightness of his actions is a good sign. I’m kind of meh on Elektra right now, though. A bit too much femme fatale for my tastes. Maybe the second trailer will make her more interesting, since it looks like that’s going to focus on her.

In celebration of the trailer tomorrow

And also in honor of Valentine’s Day: a one of my favorite bromantic videos: